Sunday, April 10, 2011

It was a yellow and black and I immediately felt better. Butterflies belong to spring and summer and I could sure use some spring.

I was on the John Deere cutting the grass for the first time this year and I immediately stopped it and emoted:

Earth gets its price for what Earth gives us;
The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in,
The priest hath his fee who comes and shrives us,
We bargain for the graves we lie in;
At the Devil’s booth are all things sold
Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold;
For a cap and bells our lives we pay,
Bubbles we earn with a whole soul’s tasking:
‘T is heaven alone that is given away,
‘T is only God may be had for the asking;
There is no price set on the lavish summer,
And June may be had by the poorest comer.

And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
..... James Russell Lowell

You believe that, right? I mean me emoting the poem.

I have my cabbage and onions set out. The bell pepper is set and the cucumbers planted and the crook neck squash planted. I am now agonizing over when I should do the tomatoes and okra. My wife says wait two weeks for both but I have consulted all my sources and think perhaps an early three or four tomato plants wouldn't be a bad thing.

It is sure to bring cold wet weather and perhaps a light frost.

But it's not to early for squash. Crook neck and zucchini to cook with the onions. Sliced tomatoes on the side with some butter beans topped with a slab of butter..hot corn bread cooked thin and sugar free.

Only Yankees put sugar in cornbread and all that do should be horsewhipped.

Baseball practice continues. The kids, being the highly trained athletes some of the parents think they are, have become bored making it necessary to hit some sharp grounders and throw some fast balls while they bat to convince them they need to practice, practice, practice.

"Pete Rose," I tell them, "one of the game's greatest hitters, took batting practice before every game." Problem is, they don't know, or care, who Pete Rose was. He has become a non-person as surely as if he lived in the old Soviet Union.

In the meantime gasoline continues to rocket towards $4.00 and our esteemed leaders appear totally unconcerned. They had rather argue over 2% of this year's budget and our Supreme Being thinks we should just buy new cars.

That's a Hooverism. Why?? Because Hoover said if everyone would just buy a new car the depression would be over.

While I'm on the subject, why do so many people think releasing oil from the Strategic Reserve would reduce prices?

Oh, I know that the theory is that oil is a commodity and an increase in supply is supposed to cause a drop in prices.

That only works when the pricing mechanism is not a monopoly backed up by speculators who bid up prices on rumors of shortages. We push 10 billion barrels into the system and OPEC reduces 10 billion barrels.

We don't have shortages. We have an increasing demand met by governments artificially matching the demand with a controlled supply.

That's called a monopoly. That's also illegal. Anybody for enforcing the law?

I haven't posted anything in a while that will let my ole bud Jondee claim that I am a racist. I can't let him down:

These are tough times for Minnesota schools. In Lakeville, for example, the school board recently announced wrenching cuts of almost $7 million. Ninety-four teachers will lose their jobs, arts programs will suffer and a school will be closed. There was wailing and gnashing of teeth, but the board set its jaw: There's not a dime for anything extra.

Unless you've got an ax to grind with white folks. Then the money spigots open. The Lakeville schools are sending a delegation of teachers to the 12th annual "White Privilege Conference" at the Bloomington Sheraton from April 13-16. The district is shelling out $160 a pop -- plus $125 a day for teacher subs -- for this "white guilt" festival.

Organizers say they expect attendees from a number of other Minnesota districts.

The conference is "built on the premise that the U.S. was started by white people, for white people," according to conference materials. Its mission is to get participants to confront their biases in a "journey in understanding white supremacy, whiteness, privilege, power and oppression," and to "agree to take action in [their] own circle of power."

I mean, only a racist would think that spending money on a white guilt conference when you have laid off teachers is wrong.

Right? Rightttttttttt!

And they wonder why we think educators are among some of the dumbest people in the land.

BTW - I've stayed at the Bloomington Sheraton. It's a classy joint.

"Teach, enjoy taking advantage of the tax paying citizens."

Keeping up with more from PowerLine, we find this from Indonesia, Obamie's childhood home.

Indonesia has long been held out as a country where moderate forms of Islam flourish. Perhaps so. But sharia law has been adopted in a number of areas in Indonesia. The effect was seen yesterday, when four people were caned in Aceh province on the island of Sumatra. The presumed offense was adultery, although commission of the actual act was not clear; the couples were punished, technically, for being in "close proximity." Here, a woman named Irdayanti Mukhtar is caned:

Can you imagine what they would do to Charlie Sheen???

Speaking of things Arabic... .

Startling Stories

January 1952

In January 1952 the Arab world was not at the top of the US public 's worry list. That was held by then USSR. And any consideration that Islam got was as proxy players in the cold war,

Maybe we should have been paying better attention, eh?

The lead story by Murray Leinster was a fun fantasy adventure bit, totally forgettable. Leinster's real name was William Fitzgerald Jenkins and he wrote from 1918 into the 70's. He was a proflic writer who provided us with fun readable stories.

"Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves.” - William Pitt

"Logic. There is little logic among the cultural elite, maybe because there is little omnipresent fear of job losses or the absence of money, and so arises a rather comfortable margin to indulge in nonsense." - Victor Davis Hanson